10TIME
Within a program, we may be interested in two kinds of time:
• Real time: This is the time as measured either from some standard point (calendar time) or from some fixed point (typically the start) in the life of a process (elapsed or wall clock time). Obtaining the calendar time is useful to programs that, for example, timestamp database records or files. Measuring elapsed time is useful for a program that takes periodic actions or makes regular measurements from some external input device.
• Process time: This is the amount of CPU time used by a process. Measuring process time is useful for checking or optimizing the performance of a program or algorithm.
Most computer architectures have a built-in hardware clock that enables the kernel ...
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